Thursday, May 21, 2015

A new report on water for food
security and nutrition shows how land, food and water issues are
inextricably linked. Ensuring universal access to water is vital in order to address
food security and improve nutrition, yet recognition of the links
between water and food are too often missed. A major report on water
for food security and nutrition, launched on Friday by the high-level
panel of experts on food security and nutrition (HLPE), is the first
comprehensive effort to bring together access to water, food security
and nutrition.

This report goes far beyond the usual focus on water
for agriculture. Safe drinking water and sanitation are fundamental
to human development and wellbeing. Yet inadequate access to clean
water undermines people’s nutrition and health through water-borne
diseases and chronic intestinal infections. The landmark report,
commissioned by the committee on world food security (CFS), not only
focuses on the need for access, it also makes important links between
land, water and productivity. It underlines the message that water is
integral to human food security and nutrition, as well as the
conservation of forests, wetlands and lakes upon which all humans
depend.

Policies and governance issues on land, water and food are
usually developed in isolation. Against a backdrop of future
uncertainties, including climate change, changing diets and
water-demand patterns, there has to be a joined-up approach to
addressing these challenges. There are competing demands over water
from different sectors such as agriculture, energy and industry. With
this in mind, policymakers have to prioritise the rights and
interests of the most marginalised and vulnerable groups, with a
particular focus on women, when it comes to water access. There is
vast inequality in access to water, which is determined by
socio-economic, political, gender and power relations. Securing
access can be particularly challenging for smallholders, vulnerable
and marginalised populations and women.

All around the world, water
reform processes as well as large-scale land acquisitions often
overlook and threaten the customary and informal rights of poor and
marginalised women and men. Moreover, women’s entitlements are
often recorded as belonging to the male “head of the household”.
Removing this gender bias in farming and water and providing equal
access to resources for both male and female farmers would have a big
impact on food security and nutrition.

Smallholder farmers produce
more than 70% of the world’s food but often lack recognition of
their land and water rights in formal legal systems. Women and girls
frequently spend several hours a day collecting water but lack
decision-making power when it comes to water management.

Indigenous
people are often displaced from their lands and rivers as a result of
large infrastructure projects, and the interests of fisherfolk and
pastoralists are rarely advanced in national policies.

Mechanisms to
allocate water need to give adequate priority to water for food
production as well as for the basic needs of poorest populations and
those pushed to the edges of society. There is increasing corporate
interest in water, and states should ensure that investments respect
basic rights to water and sanitation as well as food.

Taking these
complexities into account, the report proposes ways to enhance the
capacity of poor farmers to manage water and land and to increase
water and agricultural productivity in a range of food production
systems, improve governance and invest in metrics and knowledge. The
human right to safe drinking water and sanitation as well as the
right to food are globally recognised. States should ensure the full
implementation of these rights and explore how they can be
meaningfully joined up.

The right to water largely focuses on safe
drinking water and sanitation and rarely considers the productive
uses of water. In Kenya, Colombia and Senegal, 71–75% of households
use domestic water supplies for productive activities such as food
gardening. Water is integral for sustainable livelihoods. There is no
doubt that land, food and water issues are linked.

The barriers to
joined-up national and global policies do not derive from a lack of
technology or resources. Rather they are rooted in the absence of
human rights, and the failure to recognise that water and food are
intertwined. The HLPE report argues for coherence on these issues at
all levels of policymaking and management, from local to global. We
are calling for a human rights approach to water governance to
enhance food security and nutrition. Only this will ensure healthy
and productive lives for all.

Whilst in agreement with much of the findings here we would differ when discussing the reasons for the inequality of access to water, or indeed any of life's necessities. The global economic system which places profit at the pinnacle of decision-making processesrepeatedly and deliberately places people at a disadvantage. The cause is capitalism and the only solution is a global system based on equity and self-determination with free access to the common wealth for all. Decisions made democratically by people not leaders and business interests, socialism in fact.